stages
Levels is the title of one of the most famous philosophical poems by Hermann Hesse . He wrote the poem on May 4, 1941 after a long illness; it was originally called "Transcend!" Hesse describes life in stages as a continuous process in which every stage of life (room, stage) that is "passed through" is followed by a new stage of life.
content
Each stage of life, virtue and wisdom is limited in time and blooms at its respective time. With every call of life, man should say goodbye to his old stage of life with bravery and serenity as well as without sadness and dare to start again. In addition, he should not cling to any of the stages of life, since the “ world spirit ” does not provide for a restriction, but an expansion from stage to stage. If you have found home on one level, you run the risk of slackening and paralysis. This step process is not necessarily completed with death because life is constantly calling. Thus, people should regard death as recovery, because ultimately it is only a farewell to one stage of life.
Form and text analysis
Steps has three stanzas of different lengths. The first consists of ten, the second of eight, and the third of four verses . An iambic five-lifter with a female cadence can be found throughout the poem ; Due to the numerous (also hard) enjambements , the resulting hook style and the sounding ends, the text looks more like an epic text. This effect is reinforced by the unusual rhyme scheme : The first stanza has the rhyme scheme [abacbdcede]. The verses are constructed in such a way that the pair of rhymes in the opening and closing rhymes look like a cross rhyme , while the rhyming pairs in between resemble an embracing rhyme. The second stanza consists of two sentences, one consisting of an embracing rhyme, the second a cross rhyme. In the third stanza there is only an embracing rhyme.
The sparing use of style figures gives the impression of a prosaic text. Yet the language is relatively pictorial; so every stage of life , wisdom and virtue flourishes . The power of the beginning is referred to as “magic”, the world spirit does not captivate , but lifts up in stages . Occasional inversions are due to the rhyme and meter constraints (e.g. "Only those who are ready to set off and travel"). At the beginning there is a comparison in which the “blooming” of wisdom and virtue is put in analogy to the blooming and wilting of a flower. In verses 13 and 14 an antithesis appears in the word pair "narrow" ↔ "wide". In the case of “life's call” there is an anastrophe , in the exclamation “Well then, heart, say goodbye and healthy!” One can see a personification . Hesse draws on the famous verse “And every beginning has a magic inherent” from Master Eckhart's poetry.
Use in the novel "Das Glasperlenspiel"
In Hesse's novel Das Glasperlenspiel , published in 1943, the poem is reproduced in the second part of Josef Knecht's writings in the chapter The Poems of Schoolchildren and Students . It is of particular importance for the entire novel, as Hesse has it meditatively accompany the decisive change in the life of "Magister Ludi" Josef Knecht in the chapter The Legend . The lines
And there is a magic inherent in every beginning, which
protects us and which helps us to live
expressly quoted and presented as decisive for Knecht's departure from office. In the subsequent conversation between Knecht and his friend Tegularius, Hesse then gives a detailed interpretation of the poem and also addresses the change in the original title Transcending in stages . The poem can therefore be described as "essential" for the dramaturgical design of the novel.
Hesse also uses the technique of embedding poems in his prose works in other works, so u. a. in the novels Peter Camenzind and Der Steppenwolf .
Book editions
Steps is also the title of a volume of poetry with a selection that Hesse himself put together in 1961, a year before his death:
-
Stages. A selection of old and new poems. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1961
- Reissued as: Levels. Selected poems. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 3-518-01342-4 (= Suhrkamp library , volume 342).
- Paperback Edition: Levels. Selected poems. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-458-35747-6 .
The best known line of text was used as the title of a Hesse reading book:
- "There is a magic inherent in every beginning". Stages of life. A Hermann Hesse reading book. Compiled by Volker Michels . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-518-03584-3 .
A single edition of the poem illustrated with photos was published as:
- Stages. The magic of a new beginning. Knaur, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-426-65620-4 .
Trivia
- Levels is Alfred Biolek's favorite poem, who prefixes it to his biography.
- Alois Prinz titled his Hesse biography with the Hesse quote And there is magic in every beginning .
- The quote " And there is a magic inherent in every beginning " became a catchphrase .
- The poem is strongly reminiscent of a passage from Friedrich Nietzsche's work Human, All Too Human :
“Anyone who has come only to some extent to freedom of reason cannot feel any other way on earth than as a wanderer - even if not as a traveler to a final destination: because there is no such thing. But he does want to watch and have his eyes open to what is actually going on in the world; therefore he must not attach his heart too tightly to everything ; there must be something wandering in himself that takes pleasure in change and transience. "
- The Hannoversche post-rock band Frames uses a sound recording by Hesse, in which he recites his poem, as the only text element in their second studio album In Via . The first verse can be found in the second track of the album "Departure" . Verses two and three close the work in the tenth title "Coda" .
- Matthias Bonitz set stages to music in 2016.
literature
- Dorothée Gommen: Polarity Structures in Hermann Hesse's Work. Poetry, epic, drama . Meidenbauer, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89975-580-4 . (= Forum German Literature 7)
- Bernhard Zeller: Hermann Hesse . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2005, ISBN 3-499-50676-9 . (= Rowohlt's Monographs 676)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steps on hhesse.de
- ↑ Bernhard Zeller, Hermann Hesse , p. 159.
- ↑ Dorothée Gommen, polarity structures in the work of Hermann Hesse , pp. 52–54.
- ↑ Dorothée Gommen, Polarity structures in the work of Hermann Hesse , p. 45.
- ↑ Erika Schellenberger-Diederich (Ed.): My favorite poem: Prominent answers - from Elke Heidenreich to Richard von Weizsäcker . CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60607-6 , p. 103 f .
- ↑ Alois Prinz: “And every beginning has a magic inherent in it”. The life story of Hermann Hesse . Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-407-74114-1 .
- ↑ Hermann Hesse reads his poem »stages« - Suhrkamp Insel Mediathek Mediatheksdetail. Retrieved December 22, 2017 .
- ↑ bonitz-classic.de: levels